Music Video

The National – Walk It Back | Music Video

The National have marked the one year anniversary of President Trump‘s inauguration with a new music video for “Walk It Back“, taken off their seventh studio album release Sleep Well Beast.

Originally released last year, the song has clear political connotations, at one point quoting a section of a New York Times article from 2004 that the author Ron Suskind attributed to a senior advisor to the Bush Administration.

“People like you are still living in what we call the reality-based community. You believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality. That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

“And while you are studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors, and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

The timing of the music video is clearly not coincidental, with the clip featuring pixelated footage of Congress and speeches from key political figures that the director Casey Reas said “captures the pomp and rituals of Congress and its vainglorious, televised culture.”

Part time journalism student and full time music lover, Bridget hails from Melbourne, Australia - land of the smashed av, deconstructed long blacks and Neighbours. Now based in Leeds she spends her time raving about the price of beer and writing about music, politics and culture.